Egregious operational failure and severe staff misconduct executed by your Operations Manager,…read moreEmery Vincent, and your production staff member, Morgan.
I want to preface this by stating that I have been a loyal customer of Atlanta Vinyl for a number of years, spending hundreds of dollars with you for my smaller projects. Up to this point, your business has been my absolute go-to. My experiences with your front desk staff have always been excellent--they have been wonderful, professional, and have never once given me an issue. I do not believe your entire company is at fault, but rather that you have a severe leadership and quality control crisis specifically within your back-of-house production team.
My recent order was delayed due to a mix-up with the foil portion. While picking up a previous order the day before, I was told that due to a delay in email response, my other order wouldn't be ready until the following day. Despite being on a tight schedule, I understood that mishaps happen. However, the next morning, I never received a pick-up confirmation email. When I called the store, Morgan answered and acted as though I hadn't responded to the previous email, completely ignoring the fact that she had already spoken to the young man at the front desk about my order the day prior.
When I asked to speak with the manager, I was told he was out. I gave it an hour and drove to the store to handle the matter in person. Upon my arrival, I remained entirely professional and did not raise my voice. Instead of taking accountability for where he and Morgan dropped the ball, Mr. Vincent told me he would be writing up the helpful young man at the front desk for telling me the order would be ready. I explicitly told Mr. Vincent that a write-up was entirely unnecessary, as that employee has always been a massive help to me. Mr. Vincent dismissed this and insisted on writing him up anyway, stating "that's not the way we do things."
He told me the prints were on the press and would be ready shortly, so I waited patiently. I asked the young man at the counter to please get me the number to corporate. Because of the clear line of sight from the front counter to the production line, I watched the front desk employee go to the back to ask them for the corporate office number on my behalf. I could see them whispering to him. He returned and told me I could only speak to Emery.
When Mr. Vincent came back up to hand me the prints, he immediately began to antagonize me. I asked him directly for the corporate number, and he flatly refused, claiming he "takes care of all of that" as the production manager. I told him I did not wish to speak with him and demanded higher management.
At this point, I became very angry and belligerent. I was exhausted, running on only three hours of sleep, and under immense pressure to deliver my project. I am not proud of losing my temper or using profanity; it is entirely out of character for me, and I rarely allow anyone to drain my energy in that manner. However, instead of de-escalating the situation, Mr. Vincent intentionally baited me.
I do not typically bring skin color into business disputes, but his treatment was undeniably fueled by race. He actively tried to throw a helpful employee under the bus, withheld your contact information, and heavily antagonized me. Mr. Vincent then weaponized my provoked reaction by threatening to call the police on me and falsely claiming I was trespassing--simply because I was standing my ground as a Black customer demanding the order I paid for.
To make matters worse, the product quality from the production team was completely unacceptable. When I got the prints home, they were entirely defective, horrible quality, and unusable. Because of the sub-par work provided by Morgan and Emery's department, I was unable to fulfill my contract and had to issue a full financial refund to my own client for their bag orders. (Though my client was understanding I felt horrible).
I have full photo and video evidence of the defective prints I was given.
